OldeSchoolNews.com

            Censorship is “the suppression of information, ideas, or artistic expression by anyone, whether government officials, church authorities, private pressure groups, or speakers, writers, and artists themselves,” according to the Academic American Encyclopedia.  In reference to the Internet, censorship is very prevalent via Internet-filtering programs, such as 8e6 Technologies, Bess SmartFilter, and CyberPatrol.  Generally speaking, censorship exists to protect the population from illicit or inappropriate content.  In schools and libraries censors are used to ensure that students/employees are staying on task and being productive, however, it turns out that a large majority of the time Internet-filters are far more destructive to productivity than they are constructive due to the limitations of what is able to be viewed online. For example, a study on school Internet filters conducted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation found that: “Of all the pages related to state-mandated curriculums blocked by blocking products, the products blocked only 1-3% of those web pages to CIPA’s criteria for blocking visual depictions of illegal obscenity, child pornography or harmful to minors content.” “…97-99% of the web pages blocked using non-standard, discretionary, and potentially illegal criteria beyond what is required by the CIPA.” (EFF Net Block Report)             Most people would agree that censoring some images is legitimate when minors access the Internet. They are protected from things that are illegal for them to see at their current age which is one benefit of censorship.  Internet-filtering companies, however, tend to take censorship too far and begin to infringe on the First Amendment Right.  According to the Children's Internet Protection Act, or  CIPA, a law passed by Congress in 2000, there are only three visual representations that must be filtered and they are “obscenity, child pornography, or content that is harmful to minors.” Why is it then, that with some filtering software you cannot search for state-mandated curriculum topics such as ‘The Klan’, ‘penis’, or ‘slavery’? (Two of the three of those terms are currently blocked in the St. Vrain Valley School District. -- Editor) Unless the site has visual representations of the three topics as defined by the CIPA these websites should be visible for all.  This is not to say that these are the only topics, far from it.  Here at Olde Columbine, math teacher Dottie Hargrave wanted to generate math bingo cards but to her dismay the website could not be accessed as it was incorrectly listed as ‘gambling’.             Internet-filters frequently mislabel, wrongly categorize, and block websites that are not required by the CIPA to be blocked.  According to the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) schools with even the least restrictive blocking settings will incorrectly block at minimum tens of thousands of web pages, either because of miscategorization, or because the web pages, while correctly categorized do not merit blocking based on the CIPA standards.  One of the biggest issues with censoring as well is that it does not take into consideration the age of the user.  All people, students 17 and older and teachers alike are too subject to the CIPA through web-filtering, this infringes on the First Amendment Right.  Internet-filtering software, at the time being, is not sophisticated enough to properly block all content deemed by inappropriate by the CIPA standards while not blocking content that is state-mandated.  An interesting point of information to know is that while schools must block certain items relative to state-mandated curriculum by the CIPA, Colorado law states that public libraries must make the distinction between scientific/research and illicit. Many curriculum topics relative to sex-education courses and health courses are blocked.  The EFF has offered several considerations or amendments to the CIPA standards to ensure that students and teachers are able to access the content they have a constitutional right to obtain.  Censorship is a hot-topic issue in most religious and political fields and has been for a long time, however, when censorship begins to infringe on your constitutional rights it is no longer beneficial and should be revised in a serious manner until it fits the standards applied by the CIPA.